The present invention relates to an aqueous surfactant blend including at least one C3 to C10 alkyl polyglucoside, at least one amine oxide, at least one polycarboxylated alcohol alkoxylate, and at least one alcohol alkoxylate. The composition is particularly useful in alkaline cleaning compositions that provide low foaming, and improved solubility, wetting, cleaning and chlorine stability.
Many dairies, breweries, beverage plants, canneries, and other food processing operations use highly alkaline cleaning and sanitizing solutions for hard surface cleaning and clean-in-place applications. Concentrated alkaline solutions, typically about 50% sodium hydroxide, are diluted to desired use concentrations.
Substantial attention has been directed to concentrate materials having increased active content that can be manufactured as stable liquids. A need has existed to increase the active concentration of detergent components in order to provide improved efficacy and performance. However, in these highly alkaline environments, it can be extremely difficult to form stable concentrated aqueous solutions with a high active content. Furthermore, the use of higher performing surfactants make it even more difficult to form stable concentrated aqueous solutions without phase separation, and typically, the more detersive the surfactant, the harder it is to form a stable concentrated aqueous solution.
Thus, a need remains for stable, highly concentrated cleaning solutions which can be formed in a highly alkaline environment, that are stable upon storage, that provide satisfactory cleaning, are low foaming and also are chlorine stable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,921 describes an aqueous cleaning concentrate containing alkali metal hydroxide, at least two nonionic surfactants and an alkyl glucoside or alkoxylated glycidyl ether. The concentrate can be diluted with water or additional aqueous alkali metal hydroxide to provide a low foaming composition useful for washing bottles and other food and beverage containers.
The present invention seeks to overcome the problems of the prior art by providing an improved, stable alkali-soluble cleaning compositions that have good stability in high alkalinity, good cleaning, are low foaming, and that are also chlorine stable.
The present invention provides a surfactant blend that is useful in highly alkaline solutions, that has good stability, good cleaning performance, is chlorine stable, and which has a performance level that exceeds that of the individual components.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a surfactant blend which includes at least one C3 to C10 alkyl polyglucoside, at least one amine oxide, at least one polycarboxylated alcohol alkoxylate, and at least one alcohol alkoxylate.
Suitably, the surfactant blend includes about 10 to about 50 wt-% of the alkyl polyglucoside, about 1 to about 15 wt-% of the amine oxide, about 1 to about 30 wt-% of the polycarboxylated alcohol alkoxylate, about 1 to about 10 wt-% of the alcohol alkoxylate, and about 0 to about 25 wt-% water.
More suitably, the surfactant blend includes about about 10 wt-% to about 45 wt-% of said at least one alkyl polyglucoside, about 3 wt-% to about 15 wt-% of said at least one amine oxide, about 3 wt-% to about 25 wt-% of at least one polycarboxylated alcohol alkoxylate, and about 3 wt-% to about 6 wt-% of said at least one alcohol ethoxylate.
The surfactant blend may then be combined with an alkaline solution of about 25% to about 50% active ingredient such as sodium hydroxide solution, water conditioning agents, bleaches, silicates, solvents, high foam amine oxides, and so forth to form a chemical composition useful for cleaning purposes, for instance. The surfactant blend has been found to have excellent stability in both highly alkaline and in chlorinated environments.
The resultant cleaning concentrates are easily diluted with water at the time of use to the desired use concentrations and are thus made readily useable as cleaning compositions. Typical use dilutions are at a ratio of about 1:10 to 1:100, and suitably about 1:30. Expressed as a percentage a typical use dilution may be about 3.5%, or in gallons it may be about 4.5 oz/gal. As diluted use solutions, these compositions are useful for effective soil removal in laundry, ware washing, clean-in-place (CIP) applications including dairy, brewery, cannery, beverage, and other food processing operations.
The materials are phase stable and have viscosities that make them readily usable in larger scale industrial and institutional applications. The compositions provide improved stability, improved wettability, and improved or enhanced soil removal properties because of high alkaline and surfactant contact.